Disable Touchpad Temporarily When Typing September 20, 2006

Recently, I faced a different problem. When typing on the new laptop that I got, my thumb often accidentally brushes the touchpad, and this leads to me continuing to type things in entirely a different place. This is because the thumb moves the mouse pointer to a different spot that where the typing cursor is, and then there is an accidental click. Argh! very annoying.

The good news is, I figured out how to fix this using syndaemon!

syndaemon watches activity on the keyboard and can disable your synaptics touchpad for a variable period after it detects activity on the keyboard. Here’s how I use it:

First, I edited the /etc/X11/xorg.conf file and added the Option “SHMConfig” “on” line to the section called “Input Device” for the Synaptic Touchpad input device.

Then I restarted X (by using the ctrl+alt+backspace key combination).
Once I was logged in, I used syndaemon as $syndaemon -t -d

The -t option specifies that only the tapping and scrolling actions are to be disabled, I can still move the cursor around while typing on the keyboard.
The -d option asks syndaemon to run in the background as a daemon, so I don’t have to keep the terminal open after executing the command.

You can disable the touchpad entirely by not using the -t option.

By default, syndaemon disables the touchpad for 2 seconds after the last keyboard activity. You can change this by specifying the idle-time using the -i option. Read the manual for all details: $man syndaemon.

To make syndaemon start up by default each time you login, add it to the list of Startup Programs in System->Preferences->Sessions. I have the following command added there now: syndaemon -t -d. Log out and log back in to see if its working for you.

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[…] Update: To learn how to disable the touchpad temporarily when you are typing, read this other recent article. I needed a quick way to disable and enable my synaptics touchpad at will, and I found one. […]

This should indeed be the default; a checkbox that’s automatically ticked by default can go into preferences if it’s really important, although I think that it should just do this. The only issue is that SHMConfig is a bit of a risk in multi-user environments where any other user can turn off your touchpad! I’d recommend submitting this as a feature request, definitely. Thanks for the tip!

[…] thing that continues to be annoying is the sensitivity of the touchpad. I did find a helpful post for disabling the touchpad while typing, which was a significant help. Still, when I do try to use the touchpad, it sometimes seems to have […]

[…] Here’s a great tip from Ubuntu Blog: Recently, I faced a different problem. When typing on the new laptop that I got, my thumb often accidentally brushes the touchpad, and this leads to me continuing to type things in entirely a different place. This is because the thumb moves the mouse pointer to a different spot that where the typing cursor is, and then there is an accidental click. Argh! very annoying.The good news is, I figured out how to fix this using syndaemon! […]

The Dell Ispiron 6400 has a terrific touchpad but I don’t always want to use it — so, please – what IS the bottom line? My much older HP had a great touchpad with it’s own on-off incorporated section. Also, when on, that old HP Pavillion pad had a light around it, and when off, no light. Easy! With the DELL, I want the ability to use my plug in mouse with the touchpad OFF, and when I want the touchpad, I want to be able to simply turn it back on easily. There is no disable option in the device manager screen. Is there a proven safe fix for an easy on-off?
Thanks, Allie

[…] touchpad not use click or scroll events while you are typing. The information for this was found here. Make syndaemon start up by default each time you login, add it to the list of Startup Programs in […]

It says in the terminal “Disabling… Enabling…” as I type/don’t type but nothing is actually getting disabled – I can click as normal. Tried poking around in ‘man syndaemon’ etc but didn’t find anything useful except the -S param, which seems to change nothing for me.

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